Meghalaya Cave Diving — East Jaintia Hills 2025

The Expedition

East Jaintia Hills sits in the heart of one of the most cave-dense regions on Earth. The limestone karst of Meghalaya holds hundreds of known cave systems — and an unknown number of undocumented ones. The sumps here have seen almost no systematic cave diving exploration. This expedition aimed to change that.

Our team of three divers operated out of Khliehriat, spending nine days moving between systems across the district. The logistics were demanding — narrow jungle tracks, local permissions, and gear hauled by hand into cave entrances that see more caving boots than dive fins.

Krem Um Im-Labit

This was the primary objective. The sump at the end of the first accessible gallery had been noted by cavers for years, but never dived. We rigged a traverse line from the entrance and staged cylinders at the sump pool.

The first sump was short — eleven metres of passage at a maximum depth of six metres — but emerged into a previously undocumented air chamber of roughly 80 square metres. The second sump beyond was the technical challenge of the expedition: 160 metres of line laid through a low-ceilinged passage with unpredictable silt layers. Pushing carefully, we emerged into another chamber before the passage narrowed beyond diver access.

Survey Work

Every metre of new passage was surveyed on the way out. Depth, bearing, ceiling height, width — all recorded and cross-checked between two divers. The data has been submitted to the Meghalaya Adventurers Association and will feed into the ongoing karst mapping project for the district.

Conditions and Technique

Visibility was the key challenge throughout. The sediment in these systems is fine limestone silt — it clouds instantly and takes hours to settle. Frog-kick discipline was non-negotiable, and we ran a modified jump/gap protocol to protect our primary lines in the restricted sections.

Water temperature held steady at 18°C — cold enough to demand thermal protection, warm enough to manage on relatively standard undergarments.

What Comes Next

Krem Um Im-Labit still has passage beyond where we turned. The second air chamber needs a full survey, and there are at least two further sumps noted by cavers on previous dry expeditions. East Jaintia Hills has years of exploration left in it — this was a beginning.